


Egg-centric Behavior

by AithuzahFic (veritably_mad)



Series: The Egg-cident [2]
Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern with Magic, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-15
Updated: 2015-04-15
Packaged: 2018-03-23 00:58:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 824
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3749149
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/veritably_mad/pseuds/AithuzahFic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Merlin had stolen Will’s phone and stuck it to the ceiling with magic before he could upload the video he’d taken. The last thing he needed was video evidence of an illegally obtained dragon hatchling making it onto the web.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Egg-centric Behavior

“What are you going to name it?”

“ _Name it?_ You think I’m keeping this thing?”

Merlin had stolen Will’s phone and stuck it to the ceiling with magic before he could upload the video he’d taken. The last thing he needed was video evidence of an illegally obtained dragon hatchling making it onto the web.

Will had immediately started playing with the creature, teasing and grinning at it. He sat cross-legged on the floor of Merlin’s room near the remains of the eggshell while the dragon explored.

Merlin adamantly avoided meeting its eyes. He knew himself too well. All he had to do was look at it too long and next thing he knew, he’d be sneaking it into his dorm come autumn and making excuses for why he needed absurd amounts of meat.

It was a bloody _dragon_. He’d never seen one in person before, even in a zoo—they were too intelligent, too magical, too powerful to be contained like that. Of course he wanted to spend every second he could with it, study it, coo over it…

On the other hand, his mum would murder him if she found out he’d knowingly kept an illegal magical creature under her roof.

So, he kept his back turned, intent on his laptop screen, and tried to figure out the best way to phrase “what to do when you accidentally buy a baby dragon and don’t want to get arrested” for the search bar.

Will flicked his fingers at the wobbly little thing’s snout. It squeaked and toddled at him, nipping at the tips. “Duh. What else are you going to do with it?”

Merlin spun his chair around and glared at his friend. Sometimes he questioned whether he was truly friend-worthy if he kept acting so flippant in a crisis.

“Contact someone and let them know that xtotallyxceramicsx on ebay isn’t fucking selling ceramics?” he said, throwing up his hands. “I can’t raise a dragon in my dorm room! It’ll get _big_ , you know. How long do you think I’d be able to hide it?”

“Why so loud?”

Merlin stopped talking. Will’s mouth hadn’t moved during that last bit, and he sure as hell was no telepath.

Slowly, he asked Will, “Did you ask me why I’m being loud just now?”

Will gave him one of the _my-best-mate-is-a-moron_ looks that passed between them all too frequently.

The dragon wobbled its way to Merlin’s feet and sat upright, propping its forelegs on Merlin’s knees for support. Merlin couldn’t move, or breathe, or do anything but get lost in the shimmery amethyst-brightness of its eyes.

“Mer-lin,” the dragon pronounced, tasting the name. “Hello.”

It didn’t sound like “Hello,” but it felt like _hello_ , and Merlin was more than a bit confused.

“Are you hearing this?” he breathed.

Will shrugged. “I heard your name and a bit of gibberish,” he said. “Is this normal?”

“How should I know?”

“You’re the creature-nerd.”

“Stop calling me that!”

“You used to have a t-shirt with that on it!”

“Parents?” the dragon asked. Merlin’s mouth dropped open and he waved a hand at Will to shut him up before he thought he’d won the argument. Which he hadn’t.

 “No, no, we’re not your parents. I’m sorry, I don’t know where your parents are,” he said in what he meant to be a soothing tone. What came out instead was low and rumbling and it didn’t sound like English at all, but somehow he knew what he was saying and his magic was thrumming warm in his chest and _what the fuck was going on, exactly?_

“Shit,” Will said. “When the fuck did you learn Dragonese?”

“That’s not what it’s called,” Merlin snapped, even though he didn’t actually know. “And I didn’t! I don’t! I don’t know what’s going on!”

The claws braced against Merlin’s legs tensed, pricking his skin. He looked down into the innocent, worried face staring up at him. “Shhh, I’m not mad at you,” he soothed. Without thinking, he rubbed under the dragon’s chin with a finger, and it tilted into the contact. Its scales rippled into a calm, pale blue. “I’ll take care of you. Don’t worry. I’ll find your parents, or someone else, to keep you safe.”

The dragon gripped his trouser legs and hauled itself up onto Merlin’s lap. It curled there and started purring like a cat. Merlin’s resistances started melting under the space-heater-warmth of its belly.

He vaguely recalled reading about human magic tied to the lives and power of dragons. _Dragonlords_ , they were called. People who could speak the language of the dragons, command them, care for them and bond with them like no one else. If he remembered correctly, the power was hereditary, passed from parent to child.

"Mate, I think that dragon baby just adopted you," Will said. 

Merlin stroked the leathery softness of its wings and thought, vaguely, that his mum had a _lot_ of questions to answer.

**Author's Note:**

> Kudos, comments, and constructive critiques are always welcome and much appreciated.
> 
> (I'm greedy for feedback, I admit it.)
> 
> { [come say hi!](http://aithuzah.tumblr.com) }


End file.
